Ranking The Whedonverse’s Most Soul Crushing Moments

Through compelling character development and whip smart dialogue, Joss Whedon gave us heroes for the ages with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly proving themselves better with each rewatch (despite the dated fashion choices). However, nothing ever comes easy in the Whedonverse, with nearly every character undergoing a devastating amount of loss, some more than others. And yet his audience thanks him for it. No matter how much emotional pain Whedon has handed out, they still show up every time while remembering the lost characters. And so, because Whedon fans are all so used to being sad when thinking about the Whedonverse, let’s take a walk down memory lane and recall the most devastating moments that came from the mind of Joss Whedon.

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I love the list, but I’ll never agree to Joyce’s death as #1. Joyce as a character frequently served as an impediment to Buffy slaying, thus she was an aggravation to be inevitably bypassed, since the show isn’t Buffy Comes Straight Hone From School Every Day. As a mother, she was often cold. You can argue that as a parent and something of a dullard, she didn’t understand Buffy’s role in saving the world, but as viewers we knew, so it burned to see her ground or throw Buffy out of the house over and over (didn’t Buffy have enough problems, Joyce?) Then she scolded Giles for his role in Buffy’s life, which was unforgivable. I had heard the rumors they were killing off Joyce finally in S5 and expected to be happy, but Gellar’s performance made me unexpectedly misty. I literally hated that character though.

I did like her in exactly one episode, not surprisingly the Halloween one where the adults get turned into annoying teenagers.

Doyle’s death in Angel (plus the viewing of the ad they filmed when Glenn Quinn died in real life) was a real heartbreaking moment for me, as was the revelation that Cordelia was actually dead and Lorne’s descent into depression after Fred was gone.

On a lesser level, Jonathan’s death, Spike’s reaction to Buffy’s death in The Gift and Wesley’s last hurrah were all sad too.

You forgot the first episode of Agents of Shield, not because of anything that happened in it but that was shit and Whedon directed it. The show did get watchable after a while but goddamn it started rough.